In March, BMW Sold Nearly 12,000 Plug-In Electric Cars

BMW Group increased its plug-in electric car sales by 35.9% to 11,811 in March (its second best result ever).

The pace of growth slowed down so far this year, but even at 26,858 sales in the first quarter, BMW achieved growth of 38.3%. It’s enough to fulfill the goal of 140,000 for the year (up fr0m 103,000 in 2017), but nothing spectacular.

The highest share in Q1 was in Scandinavia – around one in four BMWs sold there happened to be plug-ins.

“Those worldwide sales of 26,858 electrified BMW and MINI vehicles confirm the BMW Group’s position as a leading global provider of premium electrified mobility and keep the company on track to achieve its target of delivering at least 140,000 electrified models in 2018. First-quarter sales of BMW i, BMW iPerformance and MINI Electric vehicles leapt 78.0% in the USA, the company’s largest single market for electrified vehicles. With a total of 5,743 vehicles delivered in the first three months of the year, 6.8% of all BMW Group sales in USA were electrified. A similar proportion was achieved in the UK & Ireland, where a 23.3% increase in electrified sales resulted in 4,148 customer deliveries. Meanwhile in Scandinavia, one in four BMW Group vehicles delivered in the first three months of the year was electrified.”

They are compliance cars. Go to You Tube for video of GM’s CEO explaining the i3 to U.S. reporters as a response to increasing zero emissions laws the world over. In the same interview he explained how the the I series project was started to develop the composite carbon plastic pieces that will make their way into their ice lineup to increase mpg also a response to tightening laws. Same interview he says not likely an i5 in the foreseeable future. We know that as compliance , am I not right? Look to IEVs for the recent story how 2 major California public utilities are offering huge incentives for people to buy the BMW i3. $10,000 per car. Add California’s $2,500 rebate and the $7,500 tax credit and that’s $20,000 off. Indicators the cars are highly overpriced and not moving off showroom floors fast enough. That is a lot if money! While I admire the Bolt EV more, it too is overpriced due to production in boutique car numbers. 20-30,000 models per year for a company that sells far over 2 million cars annually is not anything other than compliance. ZEV credits anyone? Look to the ridiculous scarcity if IONIQ… Read more »

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4 months ago

dan

So, you don’t own a plug in today?

That makes you…non compliant, doesn’t it?

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4 months ago

Jopp

Go to youtube and listen to your former girlfriend talk about why you built your house with your current wife. She said it is only a compliance house. In reality you just wanted to practice how it can be done and then you want to build another bigger house with her. I believe every word that woman says.

Arguments like yours are embarrasing. You do not spent billions on a car and run plants at max. capacity, if you do not want to sell.

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4 months ago

Rightofthepeople

@James – I supposed everyone is entitled to their own opinion on the definition of “compliance car.” Yours is far more strict than mine. For me, if a plug-in vehicle is available nationwide (models in stock, not just ability to order) and in sufficient numbers to meet consumer demand, then it is not a compliance car. So BMW i3, Leaf, Bolt are all real cars. Ford Focus EV, Hyundai Ionic BEV, VW e-Golf etc are all compliance cars. Most compliance BEVs can also be identified because they are conversions of ICE platforms, not purpose built BEV platforms. Leaf, Bolt, i3 were all purpose built BEVs. I have hope that the likes of Hyundai Ionic and Honda Clarity BEVs will evolve from compliance status to real BEV status. And note that the Clarity PHEV is not compliance as it is available nationwide. Now the obvious exception to my way of defining compliance is Tesla. Going strictly by my definition, the Model 3 is a compliance car at this point. Very clearly that is not Tesla’s intent, and as soon as they ramp production up fully we will see more Model 3s on the road than any other BEV. My reservation page… Read more »

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4 months ago

Dcto

i3 sold in 50 countries, whole lotta compliance. Since it was preceded by a test fleet of EV Mini hatches & 1 Series, if they wanted a “compliance vehicle”, why wouldn’t they just produce a limited production fleet of these existing models? Certainly spent a lot of $$$ they didn’t have to to sell a clean sheet EV globally.

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4 months ago

James

It was BMW’s own CEO who stated the i Series were born to comply with increasing world zero emission laws including zero emissions zones in Europe. Sorry for my typo, I fight with autocorrect on my tablet. BMW used the i3 project to further it’s CFRP program. Now CFRP components are making it into their full ICE automotive line from SUVs to sedans. An interesting article found online reported BMW invited the IIHS and the Society of Automotive Engineers to Germany to inspect their I3 line. They were told that this type of manufacturing was invented to greatly reduce the number of workers required on the line to produce each vehicle. BMW has been very Innovative but not for the furtherance of the electric vehicle. They are a for-profit company who is always trying to increase their bottom line which is not a bad thing unless you are an EV advocate and you believe that BMW is trying to build a mass-produced widely-adopted electric car that takes away sales of their gasoline powered cars. Cars sold in the tens of thousands or cars that need to be incentivised by city state and federal governments to be sold will never change… Read more »

Umm did you not read?? 6.8% of BMW sales were plug ins. Can you imagine if 6.8% of GM”s sales were plug ins, what would that number be?

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4 months ago

Dcto

BMW sell 1/4 of GM’s annual ICE volume, if that helps. Oh, and no pick-ups.

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4 months ago

Dcto

Actually, since you asked, GM sold just under 10 million units last year. So if they had BMW’s 6.8% EV market penetration, they’d have sold over half a million units? Or 1/4 of the total global EV market? Guesstimating, counting was never a strong point.

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4 months ago

HH

“BMW achieved growth of 38.3%. It’s enough to fulfill the goal of 140,000 for the year (up fr0m 103,000 in 2017), but nothing spectacular.”

OK …. so growth of 38.3% is considered “nothing spectactular” now?

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4 months ago

HH

And contrary to some other company that shall not be named, they are actually perfectly on track to deliver on their goals for the year.